KU’s Elijah Johnson says Sunday’s three-hour team meeting with head coach was productive

Kansas University senior Elijah Johnson is hoping a Sunday pep talk from his coach — during a three-hour team meeting in Allen Fieldhouse — is just what he needs to turn his season around.

“We talked a lot yesterday. We talked a whole lot yesterday. ... I like the confidence he (Bill Self) is putting in me. I know he’s still riding with me no matter what. I’m just trying to grow up right now,” the slumping point guard said Monday.

He turned the ball over on the final possession of KU’s 85-80 home loss to Oklahoma State on Saturday.

“Usually I don’t,” Johnson said, asked if he needed a pep talk once in a while, “but yesterday I did. I definitely needed one yesterday and coach gave it to me. I didn’t realize until I went home that’s what I got. He gave me one.”

Self on Monday told the media that Johnson will remain the team’s starting point guard.

“He’s my guy,” Self said. “We have the best chance to win when Elijah is in the game.”

As far as other messages in the meeting in the fieldhouse, Johnson explained: “He called us in as a team. We sat over there for about three hours yesterday talking about what we didn’t do hard, what we did do hard and it balanced out the wrong way. We got outplayed. They outplayed us. There were a couple plays he showed us where players from their team were diving on the ball and there were four people on our team standing around watching them do it. The same thing with rebounds.

“Everything on the court falls back on me. I never rallied our team at the end of the game. I blame that loss on me 100 percent because no matter what was going on in timeouts on the court, regardless, a senior guard always rallies the team up and gets the fieldhouse to turn up and take care of the job. I never did that. I had a blank face out there and I didn’t like that at all.”

Johnson said he was struggling about this time last year as well and turned it around. He said he’ll fix the problem at practice.

“Personally I don’t think I’m doing a good job at practice,” he said. “I’m kind of pacing myself and it’s coming back to haunt me now. I think that’s what I’m struggling with now.”

For more on Johnson struggles, Self’s vote of confidence in the senior floor general and the Jayhawks, see Tuesday’s Journal-World and KUsports.com

How is Missouri still ranked after losing to a terrible LSU team last week? There are either a lot of shitty teams in the NCAA this year or the coaches don't have a clue what they're doing (probably both, really).

How is Missouri still ranked after losing to a terrible LSU team last week? There are either a lot of shitty teams in the NCAA this year or the coaches don't have a clue what they're doing (probably both, really).

How is Missouri still ranked after losing to a terrible LSU team last week? There are either a lot of shitty teams in the NCAA this year or the coaches don't have a clue what they're doing (probably both, really).

As I've been saying for weeks now (long before KU's loss to them), OSU is the 2nd best team in the B12 and the closest thing KU has to a real threat in conference. Their difficult road schedule to start the B12 season gave the illusion that they weren't in the public eye, but they clearly are. The talent is there and they just did something that no team had been able to do in three years (win at AFH). They deserve significant credit for that.

OSU was ranked 21 in KenPom before the KU game (which was 2nd in the conference) and they're 18 now (still 2nd, but by an even greater margin over KSU/Baylor). ESPN's BPI rating also has them at 18. Knowing that, they should clearly be higher...certainly above MU (49 KP, 35 BPI) and probably above that overrated KSU squad (27 KP, 38 BPI) as well.

It was actually two years ago that KU lost at AFH. But, your point is still valid.

Still a long time. I think it was about 4 years between losses before that Texas one. I've actually attended each of their last three losses there and I have to say that Marcus Smart's performance on Saturday may have topped both Acie Law's and Tristan Thompson's. He was incredible, just willed that OSU team to victory in a very tough building to win in.

Still a long time. I think it was about 4 years between losses before that Texas one. I've actually attended each of their last three losses there and I have to say that Marcus Smart's performance on Saturday may have topped both Acie Law's and Tristan Thompson's. He was incredible, just willed that OSU team to victory in a very tough building to win in.

Let's be honest without Elijah killing our momentum with bad shots and turnovers we win by at least 15.

__________________
"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father ... And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

"If the people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny." - Thomas Jefferson

Who do you think crushed Elijah's spirit and caused him to lose any semblance of confidence? Marcus Smart. He took that game away by force.

I don't buy it, he simply took what was there. Elijah has been coasting all season and it finally bit him in the ass. If Self had kept Tharp in we win that game.

__________________
"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father ... And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

"If the people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny." - Thomas Jefferson